Weak Dollar Surprises Bozotti (again)

Dear old Bozotti. Like a gramophone record which has got stuck, the boss of STMicroelectronics has blamed the dollar for poor results for the third quarter in a row.

Note to Carlo: The dollar’s decline is not going to reverse while the US economy is in huge doo-doo, so why not do something about it now and hedge against the dollar-euro decline for Q2? It’s quite simple. Your accountants will show you how to do it. “Due to the continued and substantial decline of the US dollar,” said Bozotti earlier this week, “our profitability improvements continue to be absorbed by negative currency fluctuations. We estimate that our year-over-year operating profit was significantly affected, by about $140 million.” This is the guy who, last summer, closed down ST’s Phoenix, Arizona, and Carollton, Texas fabs of ST, ending the company’s dollar-delineated manufacturing activities just when dollar went into free-fall. OK anyone can make a mistake, but it’s a bit thick to go banging on about how the weak dollar is affecting his business when, if he’d hung on to his US manufacturing sites, he could have been benefiting from the weak dollar. So c’mon Carlo. Be a man and admit it was your fault that the falling dollar affected your profits. Or will you still be whingeing about a weak dollar when the Q2 results come out? That will make it four quarters in a row.